A recent Toyota campaign marked the first time the dealer group “held any kind of media accountable to physically going into a dealership," Kate Kaye reports at Ad Age. But the process involved a thicket of intermediaries that limited the scope of the advertising, while expanding cost and complexity. Toyota served addressable TV ads via AT&T AdWorks, which has only DirecTV inventory, matching against Experian’s audience data for in-market car shoppers. Dealership visits were then confirmed through location analytics firm NinthDecimal. More. That’s a lot of hoops for a regional marketer to jump through.

Catty

Annalect, Omnicom’s data and analytics unit credited with snagging major account wins last year, sent around an internal memo to arm employees with talking points on WPP’s competitive [m]Platform offering. The memo calls [m]Platform “a game of catch-up” to what Annalect had already “been doing for years,” noting that the reorg came shortly after Omnicom won McDonald’s, Volkswagen and AT&T accounts. It also points out the “conflict of interest” of [m]Platform’s technology investments, stating that “mPlatform will prove to push these conflicts to the forefront for clients.” Roar. More.

Climate Of Uncertainty

Pivotal analyst Brian Wieser is downgrading forecasts for some industry stocks due to “significant changes to costs of capital associated with new political risks following the recent US elections,” he wrote in a note to investors on Thursday. Wieser calls the environment for stocks “riskier now than was the case several months ago, which should lead to capital-destroying uncertainty, higher costs of capital and lower valuations.” He notes that while investors should normally look favorably upon a Republican-led government, factions in Trump’s regime supporting “mercantilism and populism” mean anything could happen.

The Sleeping Giant

Apple is rumored to be planning a significant investment in original TV content, a move that could throw it into more direct competition with the likes of Netflix and Amazon. Some argue Apple should outright buy Netflix, but it could build a media library itself too. There are other indicators Apple may be cracking open its “rainy day fund,” a facetious term for the world’s largest pile of money (some $200 billion) not controlled by a nation-state. The Wall Street Journal has more.

Over The Top, Underwhelming

Anyone who uses a broadcaster’s digital streaming product regularly can attest to the disappointing state of OTT ads. Often a network logo is left sitting on screen, even during valuable live programming – waste that would never be abided on linear TV. And broadcasters, fearing ad quality snafus and declining CPMs, jealously guard their “remnant” inventory from programmatic vendors. The result: Viewers can end up watching the same two or three ads on seemingly endless repeat. The dynamics will shake out eventually, but OTT advertising currently lags way behind OTT consumption. More at Digiday.